Growing up, I am sure many of us heard the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me." As if hearing this corny saying was going to magically erase the experience of being bullied on the playground at the age of eight.
We have all been in that situation of being picked on in one way or another. Mine was for my glasses. Classmates left and right would pick on me for my glasses. Mocking my glasses by referring to me as "four eyes." Chuckles, going off like soft hums in the background in my classroom. Sure, as I have gotten older, I now scoff at how much glasses have now become a fad, crediting myself for being ahead of the game, but I didn't always feel that way.
I remember coming home from school, crying to my mom about feeling ugly. I remember hating to make eye contact with the mirror. I remember feelingashamed for having to wear something that I needed. I felt like this for years, driving me to the point of begging my parents to let me get contacts at the age of twelve. To this day, I still feel a twinge of embarrassment as I slip on my glasses outside the comfort of my bedroom walls.
As I have continued to get older, this saying has still remained to offer zero comfort and in actuality does absolutely nothing. The reason being is that this saying holds no truth.
Words do hurt. They hurt like hell. Words sting, reminding you of the each insecurity that you clench onto secretly when you are alone in your thoughts. They scare, creating craters in your soul, oh so pleasantly reminding you of what Sally taunted you about when you were little, yet somehow this still holds you back years later.
Words hurt, yet they intricately decorate every inch of your body, every piece of skin covered with your inadequacies, almost as if they are an accessory for your daily look.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but there are days that I would rather be poked, prodded, pelted with sticks and stones than being told one more hurtful thing.
Words may never hurt me? Please let me know what reality this may be because I would love to join you. We may choose to raise our future generations to have thick skin and to neglect and brush off what others may say and think about us, but they stain us, they leave their marks.
"Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out."
That should have been our guiding light as we were growing up. Instilling in others this ideology to take accountability for our words, for our words are much more than empty vessels that evaporate into thin air once they leave our lips. They are daggers. They have the potential to be poison, intoxicating our bodies for years to come.
Growing up, I wish someone could have comforted me with messages like these. Words cannot be forgotten, and more often than not, they are difficult to forgive as well.
Words hurt like hell. I just hope we start to think about that more often before we move our thoughts into words and witness them transform into what they could be.
